Character from
Final Fantasy IV by
Squaresoft. Son of
Baron's strongest and most famous dragoon warrior (dead). Trained as a dragoon in honour of his father, instead of as a
dark knight as the
King Baron wished. Fights for Baron primarily to meet or exceed the prestige that his father attained. Close friend of
dark knight Cecil Harvey. Friend of
engineer Cid Pollendina and
white wizard Rosa Farrell. Very jealous of Cecil's relationship with Rosa.
Kain is reminiscent of Macbeth in that he he is unable to balance his ambition and morals. It is probable that his name alludes to the character in the bible. He is the most tragic, complicated, and interesting character of the whole Final Fantasy series.
As an interesting sidenote, an outline of Kain's figure can be seen in the background of Square's official Final Fantasy IV title pic.
Full Name: Kain Highwind
Class: Dragoon
Age: 21
Height: 183 cm
Weight: 61 kg
Left-handed
Birthplace: Baron
^^^ Stats Source: Final Fantasy IV Settei Shiryouhen
Walkthrough of Kain's contribution to FFIV:
When Cecil loses his post on the Red Wings for questioning the King Baron, Kain speaks up for him. As punishment, the king sends them both on a mission to exterminate the callers of Mist. Cecil is apologetic, but Kain is not upset. He knows that he was in the right for defending Cecil.
The two leave early the next morning and travel towards the town. They are attacked by the Mist Dragon, a called monster who defends the hamlet, but Cecil is able to defeat it with Kain's assistance. When they reach town, they realize that the callers are regular people rather than the monsters that they had always thought them to be. Cecil has second thoughts about destroying the village; however, before he can voice them the fire ring given him by the King Baron ignites and destroys the town with fire.
Kain is surprised, Cecil is disgusted. They see a lone girl crying next to the body of her mother. Kain is touched; however, this doesn't stop him from trying to carry out the king's sentence. Luckily, Cecil is able to prevent him from killing her, the last caller. Seeing herself in danger, the girl summons Titan for defense. The monster causes an earthquake, leaving Kain on one side of a new mountain and Cecil on the other.
Satisfied that his mission has been carried out, Kain returns to Baron. He meets Cecil's replacement as Commodore of the Red Wings, Golbez. Kain shows great respect for his power, and the two become semi-friends. When Golbez leaves on his mission to take the crystal of fire from Fabul, the dragoon accompanies him.
When Kain sees Cecil helping the Fabulites, he is appalled that his old friend would help such a minor power. He takes Cecil on in one-to-one combat, instead of joining him as Cecil requested. After a short fight, the dark knight is crushed by the dragoon. Now slightly disgusted, Kain takes Fabul's crystal. Rosa screams insults at Kain, genuinely hurting him. He had always harboured a secret love for Rosa. As an after thought, and to attempt to turn Rosa to him, he kidnaps her from the fallen Cecil and returns to Baron.
Some time later, the King Baron is overthrown by Cecil, now a paladin after his revelation on Mt. Ordeals. Kain realizes that he is now working specifically for Golbez rather than Baron, but it does not bother him; he is with the superior power. Kain meets Cecil in the air above the castle in a Red Wing airship, Cecil with Cid's new craft. He sneers at the paladin, and offers him a deal: Golbez will return Rosa in exchange for Toroia's earth crystal.
Cecil accepts, and after capturing the crystal he and his party travel to the Tower of Zot. While the trade is being made, sage Tellah, a member of Cecil's party, attacks Golbez. The master magician uses the forbidden magic of Meteo and defeats Golbez, who flees with the crystal. Kain is astonished to see Golbez beaten. Instead of trying to flee with his master, he stays and asks for Cecil's forgiveness, pleading mind-control. Cecil takes him back in.
Now the party needs a way to get to the underworld to save the four crystals of darkness from being taken by Golbez. Kain provides Cecil and the party with one of Golbez's secret keys; supposedly, it allows passage to the underground. After some research, Cecil drops the key down the longest well in the world, causing an earthquake that opens up a big hole. They fly down on the Enterprise and meet king Giott of the dwarves. They try to help him save their crystal, but fail and it too is taken by Golbez. caller Rydia, the girl who Kain tried to kill in Mist, returns as an adult and attacks Golbez with superior magic, forcing him to flee again. Kain is understandably uncomfortable around her.
Cecil decides to make an attempt on the Tower of Bab-il which Golbez has occupied. The dwarves provide a diversion with their tanks, and the party is able sneak in. Unfortunately, they are tricked by Golbez and dropped off the tower. A quick catch on the Enterprise by Cid saves their lives, except for monk Yang Fang Leiden who was left in the tower.
The weakened airship is chased by the superior Red Wings. They escape through the hole from whence they came, and Cid uses a bomb to close the passage after them. He is unfortunately left in the underworld. Kain begins to question his decision to stay with Cecil.
After moping around for a while, Cecil chooses to try to climb the Tower of Bab-il again, this time from the overworld. The party travels through a cave in Eblan near the ruined castle. On their way towards the tower, they are joined by ninja prince Edward Geraldine of Eblan, aka Edge. The group is successful at finding the crystal room in the tower this time, but fall down a trap door as they enter it and arrive back in the underworld.
Edge is lucky to find one of the Red Wing's new airships, which he names Falcon. They steal the ship and journey back to the dwarven castle to see Giott. He tells them of the Sealed Cave, where the last dark crystal was hidden long ago. His daughter Lucca gives them the key to the cave, and they head out.
The party is able to retreive the crystal. Nearing the exit from the cave, Kain executes his plan. He rams Cecil, knocking him down and taking the jewel. He yells at the rest of the party, and then deserts them for Golbez.
Golbez is pleased, as now that he has all four crystals he can open the passage to the moon and release the Giant of Bab-il, which he does. The giant wreaks havoc across Eblan. The dwarves bring out their tanks and Baron its airforce, but it becomes obvious that even this is not enough to stop it.
Cecil and party return from the moon on the Big Whale with lunarian FuSoYa. They enter the huge robot through its mouth and climb through it into its head, where they destroy its CPU. Golbez is infuriated, but before he can attack he is stopped by FuSoYa who removes Zemus's control. Golbez recalls his memory and realizes the bad things that he has done; with the other lunarian, he leaves the giant for the moon to put a stop to it all.
Kain is alone, at Cecil's mercy once again. Seeing no other alternative, he pleads mind-control again, hoping for another chance. Cecil shows compassion, and takes Kain back because of the friendship that they once had. The final party, Cecil, Kain, Edge, Rosa, and Rydia, take the Big Whale up to the moon.
Kain travels with the group down to the depths of Luna, to the core of the planet. He witnesses the battle between Zemus and FuSoYa and Golbez. Zemus is thorougly defeated. However, as the heroes begin to rejoice Zeromus, the incarnate of evil, arises from Zemus's body. It wipes the floor with everybody.
Prayers from the group's home planet give them enough strength to continue the fight. Cecil uses the crystal obtained from Golbez to reveal Zeromus's true form, and the party does battle.
Finally, Zeromus is defeated. Golbez and FuSoYa descend farther into the core to go into extended sleep while the rest of the party starts the long journey home. Cecil is married to Rosa and becomes the next King of Baron, but Kain does not attend the ceremony. The dragoon understands that he was a pawn in the big game instead of a player as he has always aspired to be. He has wrecked the one true friendship that he had and ruined any chances of every being with Rosa. He stands alone on Mt. Ordeals, waiting for his own transformation.
disclamer: please note that I have included a bit of poetic license in my write-up. Actual events in the game may differ very slightly.